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COMMENTARY / World

Mar 27, 2004

Tale of three Asian elections

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- Taiwan held its landmark presidential election last Saturday, Malaysia organized legislative elections last Sunday, and Indonesian legislative elections are scheduled April 5.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 27, 2004

Tony Blair loses his touch

By Jonathan Fenby

LONDON -- When he led the reformed British Labour Party to two overwhelming general election victories in 1997 and 2001, Tony Blair epitomized a new political generation that would sweep away both the cobwebs of traditional socialist policy and the increasingly incoherent, sleaze-tainted performance...

COMMENTARY

Mar 24, 2004

Advice for presidential candidate Kerry

By Ralph Cossa

TOKYO -- U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, is wise to ignore the tempest in the teapot caused by his revelation (gasp! surprise! surprise!) that there are leaders who would prefer that President George W. Bush not be re-elected. However, he needs to forcefully respond to the...

COMMENTARY

Mar 23, 2004

A decade of empty slogans

By Keizo Nabeshima

For all the shouting from the rooftops, political reform in Japan has made little headway. The latest reminder is the arrest of Kanju Sato, a former Lower House veteran of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, on charges of embezzling the salary of a state-paid secretary.

COMMENTARY

Mar 22, 2004

Put global war on terror back on track

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI -- One year after the invasion of Iraq, the U.S.-led global war on terror stands derailed, even as the scourge of terrorism has spread to more nations. The U.S. occupation of Iraq has proved divisive in international relations, splitting the world and fracturing the post-9/11 global consensus...

COMMENTARY

Mar 22, 2004

BBC still plays a vital role

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- The British Broadcasting Corporation has one of the longest and respectable histories among the world's public-service broadcasting organizations. Since its establishment in the 1920s, it has built up an enviable reputation for independence and reliability.

COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM

Mar 22, 2004

Madrid terror has lessons for Koizumi

By Yuki Tatsumi

WASHINGTON -- Three days after the terrorist bombings in Madrid, the March 14 election in Spain ended in an unexpected victory for the Socialist Party.

COMMENTARY

Mar 22, 2004

Cracking police shell games

By Kiroku Hanai

Police in Hokkaido, Shizuoka and Fukuoka prefectures have allegedly misused taxpayers' money. A number of active and retired officers have disclosed that money appropriated for phony business trips and investigative activities was diverted to slush funds.

COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Mar 21, 2004

Bush morphs into a scrappy candidate

By Bob Keefe

WASHINGTON -- Mid-March is a time of significant anniversaries:

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 21, 2004

New coalitions of the willing seek change

By Ramesh Thakur

While I was in London in January, The Guardian newspaper ran a front-page story about an independent evaluation of some of Britain's leading international charities that tried to help southern Africa avoid a food crisis in 2002-2003. The evaluation concluded that the charities had overstated the seriousness...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 20, 2004

Changing a regime beats regime change

By Glyn Ford

BRUSSELS -- North Korea is changing, embracing the market. Colorful stalls that sell all manner of mundane goods, from food to flowers, are blossoming along Pyongyang's streets. The local Tong-Il market is thronged with customers haggling and buying a cornucopia of products. Another new market in central...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Mar 20, 2004

Back to the future in Russia

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- The outcome of Russia's presidential elections was known long before the polls opened March 14. President Vladimir Putin had successfully marginalized the opposition by placing mass media under state control and exiling tycoons who were supplying opposition groups with donations.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.

Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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